Ezra8chapter 8

a.none of the sons of Levi: Ezra's muster at the river Ahava turns up every class he expected except one: he views the people and the priests and finds none of the sons of Levi. The gap stands out against the careful roll just given, since the tribe set apart for the temple's service is the one tribe missing from a company bound for the temple. Three days in tents at the rendezvous become three days with a problem exposed before the caravan can take a single step toward Jerusalem.

a.men of understanding: Ezra sends nine named men of understanding to Iddo the chief at Casiphia with a specific commission: bring us ministers for the house of our God. The move recruits Levites and Nethinims by direct appeal rather than by decree, a leader solving a shortage in his own company's ranks before he asks anything further of it. Casiphia's exact site is disputed among the commentators, but its function in the text is plain, a settled community of Levites in exile that Jerusalem could still call on by name.

a.the good hand of our God: upon us: the chapter states outright what the recruiting depended on, and the men who answer, Sherebiah with eighteen kinsmen and Hashabiah with Jeshaiah and twenty more, are credited to that hand before they are credited to Ezra's asking. This is the first of three times the formula appears in this single chapter, verses 18, 22 and 31, out of seven occurrences in the whole of Scripture, all seven in Ezra and Nehemiah. Two hundred and twenty Nethinims, temple servants appointed since David's day, complete the company, every one expressed by name, so the roll that opened in absence at verse fifteen closes in abundance five verses later.

a.a right way for us: At the river where the Levites had just been found wanting, Ezra proclaims a fast, not to ask for Levites again but to seek of God a right way for the company, its children, and everything it carries. The fast covers the whole caravan's welfare in one clause, little ones and substance named beside the road itself, so provision and safety are sought together rather than separately. Afflicting themselves before God is the text's own word for what the fast does, a deliberate humbling ahead of a dangerous crossing.

a.ashamed to require of the king: Ezra names the reason for the fast in one sentence that cost him something: he was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen, because he had already told the king that the hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him, but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. Having preached that claim to a pagan king, Ezra cannot then ask for an armed escort without unsaying it in front of the same king, so the caravan crosses open country on the strength of its own testimony rather than a guard. The fast is answered in the chapter's shortest sentence: so we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was intreated of us. Derek Prince reads the choice as one between the carnal and the spiritual, a lower level of faith Ezra declined to fall back on.

a.twelve of the chief of the priests: Twelve of the chief priests, Sherebiah and Hashabiah among them, are separated with ten of their brethren, an appointed watch over the treasure before a single mile is covered. Ezra weighs into their hands six hundred and fifty talents of silver, a hundred talents of silver vessels, a hundred talents of gold, twenty gold basins worth a thousand darics, and two vessels of fine copper valued as gold. The sum is written down before it is carried anywhere, an inventory made at the point of transfer rather than left to memory.

a.Ye are holy unto the Lord: Ezra charges the priests and Levites in the vessels' own terms: ye are holy unto the Lord, the vessels are holy also, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering. Holiness here is not a compliment but a duty, since men set apart carry things set apart, and the charge that follows treats both alike: watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and the Levites, and chief of the fathers of Israel, at Jerusalem. The treasure is entrusted with a named destination and a named end point for the count, so the watch has a fixed term rather than an open one.

a.the hand of our God was upon us: On the twelfth day of the first month the company leaves Ahava, and the hand of our God was upon us appears for the third time in this chapter, its work now stated in the plainest terms: he delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way. No soldiers were asked for at verse twenty-two, and the text records none were needed. The same hand named at the muster and the fast is credited again at the one point where the danger was real and unescorted.

a.abode there three days: The company reaches Jerusalem and rests three days before any business is done, the same three days the muster at Ahava had once spent waiting on a shortage of Levites, now spent recovering from the road instead. On the fourth day the silver, the gold and the vessels are weighed again, this time by Meremoth the priest with Eleazar, Jozabad and Noadiah standing as witnesses, closing the charge Ezra had given at verse twenty-nine. Every article is checked by number and by weight, and the total is written a second time, so the treasure that left Babylon under one inventory arrives under a matching one.

a.burnt offerings unto the God of Israel: Before any administrative business, the returned exiles offer burnt offerings unto the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs, and twelve goats for a sin offering, the number twelve naming all Israel even though only a fraction of the tribes had come home. Worship comes before paperwork a second time in this book, as it did at the altar of Ezra 3 before the temple's own foundation was laid. Only after the sacrifice does Ezra deliver the king's commissions to the satraps and governors, who in turn further the people and the house of God, so the chapter that began with an empty roll of Levites ends with a company home, its treasure counted, and its God worshipped first.